Random things that interest me.

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The Official Ubuntu Book, seventh edition

I had the privilege to lead the team that updated The Official Ubuntu Book for this seventh edition. The book continues to serve as a quality introduction for newcomers to Ubuntu, both the software and the community that surrounds it.

Neither of us develop software for Ubuntu. Both of us have been involved in other areas of the community for many years. For example, I was among the leaders of the Ubuntu Forums for many years, providing free tech support to over a million registered users. I was a member of an Ubuntu membership council, working with developers and others in the community to consider candidates and approve their applications for Ubuntu membership. Most of the devs know us (Amber is married to one), we’ve been in some of the inner circle planning discussions at developer conferences, we have occasionally wielded the reins in certain projects. Lately, we have each taken a step back to allow others to lead, but we are still around.

Also, Canonical owns the copyright on this book. They approved each of us personally based on our long-standing relationships and trust. We had direct access to devs and internal-only information during the writing of the book, information that was not made public until release time, long after our manuscript had to be turned over for copy editing.